Jazz Articles

Peg La Centra: Peg La Centra - The Complete Recordings 1934 -1937

by Dave Nathan
December 13, 2002

In early 1930's and up to the 1950's, with the enormous popularity of the big band style of jazz, especially those bands which catered to romantic ballads, there was plenty of work for big band singers. While the outcome was generally very pretty and sanguine, there was a certain parallel to the music being played with the previous tune and the one that was to follow, e.g., the clarinet lead in on "Moon Face" was not an uncommon practice at ...

Ella Fitzgerald: The Enchanting Ella Fitzgerald,Live at Birdland 1950-1952

by Dave Nathan
January 1, 2001

Baldwin Street Music has come out with another set of previously unavailable material by a top jazz vocalist. This album caputures Ella Fitzgerald's broadcasts from New York City jazz venues, mostly from Birdland. During this period, Fitzgerald was recording for Decca usually backed by a big orchestra headed by such stalwarts as Sy Oliver and Gordon Jenkins as well as an occasional side trip with Louis Jordan. The last recording on this album in August of 1955 was just before ...

Mildred Bailey with the Ellis Larkins Trio: The Blue Angel Years 1945-1947

by Dave Nathan
January 1, 2001

In 1944 Mildred Bailey was getting back on track after the end of the disastrous recording ban which almost ruined her career as well as that of other performers of jazz and popular music. Fortunately, she was offered a radio show by CBS and when Max Gordon, who also had the Village Vanguard, opened his new Blue Angel jazz venue, Bailey signed on with a trio headed by a young pianist named Ellis Larkins. She remained there until 1947. Baldwin ...

Dinah Washington: Queen of the Juke Box "Live", 1948-1955

by Dave Nathan
January 1, 2001

Ted Ono's Baldwin Street Music has rescued Dinah Washington's live performances from New York's Birdland, Royal Roost and Basin Street. There are also a couple of cuts from the soundtrack of Harlem Variety Review. It was during this period that many of her recordings consistently appeared at the top of the R & B charts. But it wasn't until her classic “What a Difference a Day Made" that she broke through to the pop charts. The first performance on the ...

Teddi King: In the Beginning, 1949~1954

by Dave Nathan
January 1, 2001

This compilation of Teddi King performances is clearly a labor of love for Ted Ono and Baldwin Street Music. King, if not yet achieving the status of a legend, is at least a cult figure. Ignored by some jazz vocal authorities - - she doesn't rate a single word in Will Friedwald's allegedly definitive Jazz Singing - - she certainly had the respect of several top flight jazz artists of the day as attested to by the personnel listing.

This ...

Nancy Harrow: You're Nearer

by Dave Nathan
July 1, 2000

Nancy Harrow cut her first album in 1960 with the Buck Clayton All Stars. Since then she has made just ten albums and this reissue of a 1986 recording originally on a Tono CD is one of them. As further evidence of lack of recognition, she gets just a footnote in Crowther and Pinfold's Singing Jazz-Jazz Singers and their Songs and no mention at all in Will Friedwald's Jazz SingingThe good news is that Baldwin Street Music, under the direction ...